Bovis Lend Lease Pays $56 Million in Fraud Case

The construction company in charge of high-profile projects such as Citifield in Queens, was charged on April 24, 2012 for over billing clients, prosecutors said.View Full Caption

Flickr/Ted Kerwin

MANHATTAN — A contractor that worked on the new Citi Field stadium, the renovation of Grand Central Terminal and other high-profile jobs bilked its clients out of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.

Lend Lease, formerly called Bovis Lend Lease, was hit with three counts of fraud conspiracy in Brooklyn Federal Court. It avoided prosecution by agreeing to pay $56.6 million in penalties and restitution.

Prosecutors said Bovis regularly billed clients — mostly government agencies — for hours and overtime its employees never worked from 1999 to 2009.

The company was also charged for lying about the specified percentage of firms owned by minorities and women they hired in order to win high profile jobs.

"The overbilling affected city, state, and federal public building projects," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge, Janice K. Fedarcyk, in a statement.

"If you are a New York City resident, Bovis indirectly swindled you on three different levels."

Projects Bovis over billed on included the Bronx Criminal Court, the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building and the Brooklyn courthouse where Bovis was charged on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

The former head of Bovis' New York office, James Abadie, 55, was also charged in a separate case for playing a critical role in the over billing scheme, prosecutors said.

Abadie pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud and faces a maximum of 20 years in jail, prosecutors said.

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